In this episode Buried Alive which is part of an ongoing series I call Strange and Beyond, I'll be discussing unfortunate people in unfortunate times, along with barbaric theories and medical mishaps. So, has anyone heard the term "Saved by the Bell"?

The term “saved by the bell” is an idiom commonly used to describe people who escaped difficult situations thanks to a last-minute solution.

But the light-hearted phrase actually may have a true scary story behind it related to a medical condition known as catalepsy.

Catalepsy is a medical condition in which a patient endures an uncontrolled state of muscle rigidity and unresponsiveness. The condition is often linked to episodes of catatonia.

Although the disease is widely understood now, in the past it caused sufferers to be mistakenly buried alive. After newspapers reported on these tragic endings, writers like Edgar Allan Poe built similar incidents in his own creepy stories such as "The Premature Burial" published in 1844 in The Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper.